The Sweetest of Dreams
by bravevulnerability
Summary: What if Kate hadn't realized the reality of her and Castle's situation so quickly in the beginning of Cuffed? What if she had let herself linger a little longer in what she thought was a dream? One shot.


Kate sighed and lazily stretched her legs, still not quite awake yet, and felt her foot hit something solid. She subconsciously crinkled her brow. That didn't feel like her bedpost, no, it felt softer. With her eyes still contently closed, she tangled one of her legs around the object, which she quickly identified as another leg, a manly, muscular, familiar leg. Suddenly something that felt suspiciously like an arm was snaking around her waist and pulling her closer. Her eyelids felt so heavy, but she forced them to flutter open anyway, desperately wanting to see the body she felt radiating with warmth against her side.

A slow smile spread across her face as she registered the man next to her. This dream would never get old.

She noticed her hand resting on his chest and carefully allowed her fingers to drift down his shirt until she found his fingers and laced them with hers. A delightful surge of butterflies playfully danced in her stomach when she saw him smile.

"Kate." he simply sighed happily, sleep still clouding his voice.

No, this dream of lying in bed with Rick Castle was definitely one she never got tired of. There was really no rush to end it either.

Although, it would be nice if she could just situate her left arm differently because the limb had apparently fallen asleep and was giving her the annoying pins and needles sting. But when she gently attempted to slip it from underneath Castle's head, she felt the tightening grip of cold metal squeeze around her wrist. Puzzled, she glanced over to trapped wrist and noticed her handcuffs. One cuff around her left wrist, the other around Castle's. They were handcuffed together?

This was new.

_And kinky_.

She smirked and simply used the cuffed wrist to wrap her left arm more securely around Castle's neck. As she examined their location, she was slightly confused to see that they were not in her bed or his loft. Her imagination had never taken her to any other settings like this. Then again, her imagination had also never decided to handcuff her to her partner either. Maybe this was a sign that she needed to start trying new things or maybe she just needed to have a taste of this in reality so she and Castle could make memories instead of dreams.

Castle hugged her tighter and placed a chaste kiss to her forehead while she nuzzled his neck.

"I love the smell of cherries in the morning." he mumbled into her hair.

Another grin found its way to her lips as she inhaled his scent, that sweet scent of cologne and man and simply something that was just Castle.

"You're not so bad yourself, Castle." she breathed into the soft skin of his neck, trailing kisses up to his jaw. She gently took his ear between her teeth and softly nibbled on his lobe before soothing the slight sting away with her tongue. He hummed in appreciation and turned on his side to face her, their handcuffed linked hands resting in the small space between them.

"The handcuffs are pretty kinky." he murmured, eyes finally slipping open and a cocky grin splitting across his lips.

"Mind reader." she chuckled, leaning forward to kiss him. This is usually about the time her sweet dreams came to an unwanted end. There was really no need to race to the finish line so quickly though, right? She could still linger in her wonderland with her literal dream guy for a while longer, so she dodged his approaching lips, hearing him whine her name in frustration. She snickered and sat up with her elbows propping her up.

"Don't get up yet, stay in bed." he told her, sounding as if sleep was threatening to take over again and attempting to wrap his left arm around her stomach to pull her back down to him. But she playfully pushed his hand away and carefully maneuvered her way into a straddle over his waist. She took his cuffed hand in her own and rested it in the middle of his chest to keep from applying any painful pressure to their wrists, which she really wished she could just free from the handcuffs. If only her key would magically appear in this odd dream…

She shoved the annoying thoughts about the cuffs aside.

"Good morning Rick." she breathed, leaning down to kiss the corner of his mouth.

He attempted to capture her lips with his own, but she raised her face just out of reach and his mouth landed on her chin. That wasn't a problem though, if she could play dirty, so could he. He wasn't exactly sure how far he should go with Kate though, not when he was unsure if she was even thinking coherently. When he had awoken to his partner snuggling beside him, he had been convinced the whole ordeal was a dream. He was used to her starring in his dreams anyway, that was nothing unusual, and even now as she sat on top of him, he was still not entirely sure this was reality. She didn't seem to think so either because he knew Beckett and he knew she would not just wake up with him and…how did they even end up together in an unfamiliar bed? Too many clues were missing for this _not_ to be one of his detailed fantasies. If this were reality, he was positive he would remember ending up here, handcuffed to Katherine Beckett.

With that internal debate settled, he lunged forward and found the skin of her neck that was unprotected by the baby blue turtle neck and nipped lightly but demandingly enough to have her involuntarily gasping. She threw her head back and he thoroughly explored the newly exposed skin of her delicious neck. Her free hand was running her fingers through his hair as she attempted to keep him from overtaking her control.

Kate bit her lip, unable to take it anymore when his tongue began to slip underneath the material of her turtleneck. She wanted his lips on hers and she hated to end her incredible dream, but it wasn't worth the intense need building in her chest and the smoldering fire burning in the pit of her stomach.

"God, Castle." she moaned, hastily rolling her neck away from his touch and finding his lips with her own.

His mouth was warm and inviting on hers, just as she normally imagined it, and she pressed her chest flush against his when he placed his right hand to the small of her back and parted his lips, allowing her heated tongue to slide in.

"I don't want this dream to end." he panted when they briefly paused for air and she found it strange that he was seemingly reading her thoughts.

"Then don't stop." she replied, grinding her hips into his and catching the pleasurable moan he released into her mouth.

Kate was surprised, but not complaining, when she was still kissing Castle after a few minutes had passed. Things never got this far in her dreams...Maybe this wasn't…Oh god…

She jerked away from him so quickly that they both gasped when the vicious metal of the handcuffs dug into both of their wrists.

"What's wrong?" Castle exclaimed, still out of breath from their heated make out session and confused by her sudden withdrawal from him.

"Why did you do that?" she hissed, smacking him on the shoulder with her right hand.

"Ouch, Kate! I didn't do anything, I honestly thought…"

"What?" she prompted with raised eyebrows, needing to hear some kind of logic, or even a stupid theory would work at this point.

"I thought I was dreaming." he mumbled sheepishly and she nervously bit her lip to hide her own embarrassment.

"I did too." she whispered quietly, barely loud enough for him to hear.

"You dream of me?" he asked, his head perking up and his blues eyes glowing with what appeared to be genuine curiosity instead of teasing annoyance. Kate shifted uncomfortably before she noticed she was still in his lap.

"You apparently dream of _me_." she countered defensively, moving off of him, despite the disappointed huff he gave.

"Well duh, Beckett." he chuckled with an eye roll and she fought the crimson blush threatening to creep up her neck and onto her cheeks.

"Do you recognize this place?" she asked as they attempted to coordinate their movements and get up from the mattress.

"No, but hey, Kate can we-"

"We're going to find out what's going on, we're going to get out of here and we will discuss everything that just happened _after_ we are safely free from wherever we are." she instructed lightly and he bravely leant forward and placed a peck to her lips.

"K'." he grinned and she shook her head in annoyance, but he swore he saw a brief smile flicker across her face. This would not be one of those things they just left unsaid and never talked about, they would get out of here and things would change and he couldn't wait.

**A/N: This is just a little something my subconscious decided to conjure up while I was attempting to sleep last night after 'Cuffed'. On a side note, how great was that episode? Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller are the essence of brilliant minds and don't even get me started on that phenomenal cast! And to anyone keeping up with my other fic 'The Beauty of Scars', I am still planning to update it. Obviously I've become sidetracked with new inspiration, but chapter 3 is still in the works. **

**X **


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